PRESS RELEASES

Human Rights Issues

Pakistani Women’s Human Rights Organization (PWHRO) is an organization devoted to the task of fighting for Human Rights for the women of Pakistan within the country. We also aim to bring the plight of Pakistani women to the notice of the world’s Human Rights Organizations and fight for the removal of unbelievable cruel practices like Karo-kari, Zina and Qasas and laws like Hudood Ordinance and Shariah Law which is already in effect in several places in Pakistan.

Press Releases

Is the Future of Pakistan in the hands of Taliban – The Emerging Era of CHILD TERRORISTS

December 2011: In a daring raid at a seminary located near an Afghan camp in Sohrab Goth area, Karachi, police have recovered 57 young children detained and kept in a cellar. Most of these young children were brought from Peshawar city and suburban areas. Four of the five administrators of the seminary have been arrested but its chief remains absconding. Children who were recovered from the seminary informed the media that they were imparted training for installing bomb devices and for becoming suicide bombers. They narrated tales of untold torture that they were subjected to on refusal to obey the orders of the owner of the seminary. They also complained that they were provided with very little food and were not allowed to ask for more. One of the children told media men that 10 kids had been sent to Afghanistan for training. They alleged that Taliban, fully equipped with arms, used to visit the premises after offering ‘dua’.

The basic question is how could such a seminary exist in a city like Karachi where heavy deployment of the law enforcing agencies and regular patrol is a daily routine? Why was timely notice not taken by the concerned police station and also why was the movement of armed people, alleged to be Taliban’ not checked? How many similar seminaries exist in the Sindh metropolis? Is there anyone to take responsibility? The answer is No. The law enforcing agencies will start shifting the blame to one another. The issue will soon be hushed up as is the case with many such incidents.

PWHRO requests the International Community for assisting the women and their children in Pakistan.

PWHRO expresses concern over the sentencing of a Christian woman to death for blasphemy in Pakistan

November 2010: Pakistani Women Human Rights Organization (PWHRO) joins others in expressing grave concern over handing of death sentence to a Christian woman for blasphemy in Pakistan.

Asia Bibi, 45, a Christian and a mother of five has been sentenced to death for blasphemy this week, the first such conviction of a woman under the normally misused provisions relating to blasphemy, by a court in Nankana District in Punjab province of Pakistan. The case, which dates back to June 2009, relates to a simple incident when she was asked to fetch water while working in the fields. A group of Muslim women labourers had objected saying that she was a non-Muslim and, therefore, should not touch the water bowl. Later, the women had approached a local cleric and alleged that Asia had made derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed. Based on the report of the cleric an investigation was initiated and Asia was arrested in Ittanwalai village and prosecuted under section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code which carries the death penalty. Asia’s devastated family, including her husband Ashiq Masih plan to appeal against the death sentence.

PWHRO deplores such acts on flimsy grounds and calls upon Human Rights agencies, women activists and the international community to oppose such abominable acts against innocent women. The case involves a Christian woman with small children being punished for Blasphemy without any basis and factual evidence. PWHRO calls upon the Government of Pakistan to discharge justice to the innocent woman and undo other similar cases of injustice to woman in general in Pakistan.

PWHRO condemns the killing of British Women in Pakistan

Tania Yousaf, of Nelson, Lancashire, was killed with her parents, Mohammed and Pervez, at a graveyard near Gujrat in May. The Pakistan British woman was shot 100 times.

29th October 2010: Pakistani Women Human Rights Organization condemns and seeks answers from the Pakistani government regarding the killing of an innocent British woman, slaughtered in public in Gujrat in Pakistan’s Punjab region.

Tania Yousaf, 22, of Nelson Lancashire, was killed on 20 May along with her parents, Mohammed and Pervez Yousaf, at a graveyard near Gujrat. Andrew Stephenson, Member of Parliament in the UK, who has taken up the case, has revealed that Qamar Abbas and Sheraz and Naveed Arif who were arrested for the murders, had “unbelievably” been granted bail. During the brutal attack, which took place during a family visit to Pakistan for a wedding, after dragging Tania from the car, the attackers made her call her husband for help on her mobile phone and killed her with him listening on the line. The sheer brutality of the murders has been reveled at Tania’s postportem, when scores of bullets were recovered from her body. Sheraz and Naveed Arif are the brothers of a women who had been married to the eldest son of the Yousafs, and their marital difficulties are thought to have led to the murder.

It is reported that nine other British citizens and 2 EU citizens, other than the Yousaf’s, have been killed in Pakistan since October 2009. If this is the safety record of foreign women in Pakistan, which is monitored by other countries, one shudders to think of the fate of Pakistani women.

PWHRP strongly urges the International Community to setup an International monitoring mechanism for the protection of women in Pakistan and promotion of their rights and also bring to justice the culprits in this case.